Paraguay's Chamber of Deputies was called into extraordinary session at 10 a.m. on Thursday, November 5, with a single substantive item on the agenda: impeachment requests against President Santiago Peña and Vice President Pedro Alliana, filed two days after the Banco Central del Paraguay (BCP, the country's central bank) took over ueno bank and ordered its dissolution.
The request was delivered by deputies Johanna Ortega, Raúl Benítez and Rocío Vallejo, and carries the signatures of 35 legislators from the opposition and from dissident ranks of the ruling Colorado Party, according to Infobae. The stated ground is "poor performance of his duties in office", the formula set out in the Paraguayan constitution. The request concerning Alliana was placed on the agenda by the chamber's own president, the Colorado deputy Raúl Latorre.
Thursday's arithmetic
Sending the charges to the Senate requires a two-thirds majority of the chamber: 53 of its 80 seats. The 35 signatories are therefore not enough on their own, and the governing party holds both the outcome and the quorum needed to open the session. If the request cleared that stage, removal would then require 30 of the Senate's 45 votes.
On Wednesday, ruling-party deputies met Peña at the presidential residence, Mburuvicha Róga. What was discussed has not been made public. ABC Color reported that the opposition and dissident Colorados together hold 35 seats, and that 41 legislators must be present for the session to open at all.
What the opposition accuses the president of
The signatories charge the executive with conflict of interest, regulatory manipulation, diversion of pension funds and institutional cover-up by the central bank. Peña was a shareholder in the group that owned the bank until April 2025, a fact the opposition is using in its political case.
"The president must go because confidence in him has been lost," deputy Rocío Vallejo of Patria Querida told ABC Color. "This is no longer about money, it is about trust."
Deputy Raúl Rubín said that "two out of every three Paraguayans cannot use their own money today". Peña has not responded publicly to the impeachment request; on the social network X he asked all political sectors to put savers' interests first and said those responsible for the irregularities would answer in court.
The hole at ueno bank
The BCP ordered the intervention and dissolution of the bank in the early hours of Tuesday, November 3, after its solvency ratio fell below 50% of the legal minimum. The regulator said the institution had lent to companies within its own group above permitted limits.
The numbers explain the political weight of the case. Ueno bank held some US$850 million in public deposits, including funds belonging to the Instituto de Previsión Social (IPS, Paraguay's social security institute), and had about 3 million customers in a country of 6.4 million people. Deposit insurance covers up to 228,300,000 guaraníes per saver, and the first announced payout reaches 10 million guaraníes, roughly US$1,675.
Prosecutors filed a 200-page complaint, charged 27 people and detained eight executives, among them the bank's president, Miguel Vázquez. The central bank's head, Carlos Carvallo, resigned, and Congress approved one of three executive nominees to rebuild the regulator's board.
What is at stake beyond Thursday
Paraguay has a recent precedent for an express impeachment: the removal of Fernando Lugo in 2012 was settled in little more than 24 hours. That memory hangs over Thursday's session, but the balance of forces is different. The Colorado Party controls the chamber, and deputy Mauricio Espínola framed the calculation in electoral terms, warning that if Peña does not step aside, the party would have slim chances of holding the presidency in 2028.
With information from ABC Color and Infobae.
